Severing of the umbilical cord is the oldest procedure and the most common surgical procedure. It happens to everyone at birth. Presently, the procedure is a three-step procedure comprising the steps of:
(a) fastening a first clamp on the umbilical cord;
(b) fastening a second clamp on the umbilical cord at a predetermined distance from the first one;
(c) cutting the cord in between the respective clamps with a pair of scissors.
This traditional procedure has substantial disadvantages which are summarized as follows; namely, the three-step procedure, above identified, takes a relatively long time, especially in instances of emergencies; there is a considerable amount of blood contained within the cord between the two clamps, thus, during cutting, the blood spurts out of the severed cord; if the blood is contaminated, for example, with either HIV or Hepatitis B, delivery personnel run the risk of infection; further two individual clamps must be used; and, each clamp as well as the scissors have to be individually sterilized before use.